Chris Anderson Sits Down with Big Think

“Free,” to Chris Anderson, is a magic word. It’s the future of business. It’s something we all need to start wrapping our heads around. Anderson chatted with Big Think’s co-founder Peter Hopkins a couple of weeks ago about the concept that was the basis of his latest book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

He addressed some intriguing issues: from the question of how we’ll decide what’s free and what’s not, to the impact of democratized media on the manufacturing industry. Should we fear Google’s control over search engines? According to Anderson, no. Think about how nervous we were about Microsoft becoming a computer desktop monopoly—and that was all for naught.

In the mean time, expect to be wowed by the power of the GPS, an innovation that most of us are familiar with, but will be a game changer in the next few years. Plus, why new businesses should prepare themselves for the golden age.